Twitter killing Hollywood movies?

Twitter is killing the Hollywood box office, according to film bosses who fear
that instant fan reviews on the micro-blogging site can seriously damage a
movie’s prospects.

7:00AM BST 24 Aug 2009

A slew of summer films have faltered after their opening weekends, including Bruno, the controversial comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Conversely, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, while slated by critics, became the season’s break-out blockbuster.

Duplicity, starring the one-time queen of Hollywood, Julia Roberts, cost $60 million to make but made only $40 million in the US. Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell’s $100 million comedy, had a domestic gross of $49 million. Funny People, the latest comedy from Judd Apatow, and Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp, have also performed below expectations this summer.

The rise of Twitter means that film-goers can deliver a withering, one-line verdict on a new release before they have even left the cinema.

“The cratering of films with big stars is astounding. These super-talented people are failing to aggregate a large audience, and everybody is looking for answers,” said Peter Guber, former chairman of Sony Pictures. He told the New York Times: “You look around the theatre and can see the glow, not on people’s faces from watching the movie, but on their chins - from the BlackBerrys and iPhones. They are immediately telling their friends whether it’s worth their time. And the answer to that, more often than not, seems to be no.”

Eamonn Bowles, president of Hollywood distributor Magnolia Pictures, said studios are worried that “people will be Twittering during the opening credits - and leaving when they don’t like them”.

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Social networking sites such as Flixster are also playing a part. “Just two years ago, if I saw a movie I loved or hated, I’d be able to tell a dozen friends, tops. Now I can be walking out of a theatre as the credits are rolling and immediately tell 500 people what I thought. It’s never been this easy to be this influential,” said one Flixster filmgoer.

Hollywood is now attempting to harness the power of Twitter. The latest film from Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds, has its own Twitter page and the movie company recently used the site to offer tickets for a special preview screening.